On Creativity

Are you creative? I bet you are even if you are not an artist, not a musician, not a crafter, not a writer, etc. The cornerstones of creativity are that you produce something which is both novel and useful. This can be on a grand scale or simply novel and useful to you. So, I ask again, are you creative?

Let's look again at novelty and usefulness. There are 4 possible combinations of yes/no responses to novel and useful. They are, in order of creativity:

• Both novel and useful This is a very creative work and where we should all strive to be. An original work of art, or musical score, or quilt, or work of fiction, or web site, or a recipe, or any number of other things one might create that has some usefulness would be considered highly creative.

• Useful but not novel This is not considered all that creative. Mass produced items fall under this heading. While the first such item might be novel and therefore creative, making them by the dozens or millions is not a creative act.

• Novel but not useful This would seem on the surface to be better than the previous designation but not so to those who study creativity. Novelty is good but without usefulness it is not creative but merely novelty for its own sake.

• Neither novel nor useful This is basically the why bother area of making things.

So ask yourself, do you make anything that is novel if only to you and is useful, again, if only to you? If so, you are creative. How creative is answered by the questions:

• How novel? If only to you then perhaps not creative in a large sense but still creative for you. If novel on a global scale, something most of us never achieve, then it could be highly creative.

• How useful? Similarly, this can be local or global or anywhere in between.

High usefulness and high novelty yield high creativity.

So, one last time, I ask, are you creative? I bet you are.

dks, 27 Sept 2025